A former United States Postal Service letter carrier in Utah has been indicted by a federal grand jury after allegedly separating more than 300 mail-in ballots from his route and dumping them without delivering a single one, the Department of Justice announced Tuesday, Fox News reports.
Damon Matai Seei, 34, of Payson, Utah, was charged with the unlawful secretion, destruction and delay of mail. Federal prosecutors allege Seei was entrusted on June 3 with delivering mail to more than 300 residents in Eagle Mountain ahead of the state’s June 23 primary election. The mail included hundreds of clearly marked mail-in ballots. Seei allegedly separated the ballots from the rest of the mail shortly after beginning his shift and discarded them within approximately 90 minutes.
The scheme came to light after several voters complained to the Utah County Clerk that they never received their ballots. Using county databases, the clerk determined that voter participation was unusually low in the area where the complaints originated. Seei was arrested Tuesday and made his initial appearance in federal court in Salt Lake City. It remains unclear whether the affected voters were ultimately able to obtain replacement ballots or cast votes by other means.
Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter addressed the indictment in a public statement. “When American voters lawfully cast their vote, they should feel confident that it is counted,” McCotter said. “Allegedly throwing away hundreds of ballots is a serious federal crime that undermines the integrity of our elections. Ballot integrity is not a partisan issue.”
Seei has told investigators he did not have a political motive for discarding the ballots. The case was investigated jointly by the USPS Office of Inspector General and Homeland Security Investigations. Seei’s next court appearance is scheduled for November 30.